You must be Joking

Fans of Heath Ledger are petitioning Hollywood to retire the Joker. They say it is to honor Heath and the outstanding job he supposedly did (I still, ashamedly, have not seen this movie yet). They compare it to the retiring of a jersey number from a sports team. Which is a crap comparison. The number on a jersey doesn’t bring anything to the game. The character of the Joker brings a lot to a Batman movie. Asking Hollywood to shoot themselves in the foot to honor a dead actor is…. well, it’s not likely to get anywhere, anytime soon. These people aren’t exactly well known for shunning sequels and remakes, or for having vaguely original ideas.

Also, I find the petitioners to be wielding exceptionally poor logic:

After we saw “The Dark Knight” we thought this Joker was really the best. It deserves to be withdrawn from any Batman sequels.

So that nobody can ever do it better? Who talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies. It’s easy to be the best when you eliminate future competition. If they’d retired baseball bats after Babe Ruth was the best to ever swing one, he’d still be the best to ever swing one. What’s the matter, Ledger fans? Can’t stomach any competition?

Last but not least, I think it’s ironic these Joker fans are taking things so… seriously. To paraphrase my favorite Joker, “this crowd needs an enema!”